


things look different from here

by kira_katrine



Category: Star Trek: Discovery
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23470903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kira_katrine/pseuds/kira_katrine
Summary: Figures she'd accidentally get zapped back in time, and end up back at Musk Junior High School of all places. And get noticed immediately. By herself.Yeah, that's definitely the kind of thing that'd happen to Tilly.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11
Collections: Space Swap 2020





	things look different from here

**Author's Note:**

  * For [facethestrange](https://archiveofourown.org/users/facethestrange/gifts).



With the number of anxiety dreams this place had featured prominently in, Tilly would recognize it anywhere.

She looked down at herself. Still in her Starfleet uniform. Her hand flew to her mouth. No orthodontic implant. She hadn’t _actually_ found herself back in junior high school again, thank goodness.

This was probably just another dream. That was all it was. They were no fun while she was in them, but it wasn’t a big deal, it was definitely a coincidence that she remembered being in that cave on the planet with that artifact and it suddenly glowed really bright just before--

Tilly hadn’t recognized the girl at first. But then she’d remembered that one time when she was fourteen and she’d tried to straighten her own hair--just once, to see what it would look like, if it would really make as much of a difference as her mother said, if it would make the other kids at her new school like her and she’d stop being so nervous and weird all the time--and the one piece that hadn’t fit in with the smelly green backpack and the old jeans and the clunky sneakers fell into place.

And then the girl turned and saw Tilly, and the half-confused, half-freaked-the-hell-out expression on her face was unmistakable.

“Who--who the heck are you?”

“Uh, nobody!” Tilly blurted, panicking a little bit. 

“Why do you look exactly like me, then?”

“No reason!” said Tilly. “Weird stuff sure happens sometimes, doesn’t it? Small world and all that. Anyway, I’m just gonna leave and go home now and everything’s gonna be normal and--”

“You’re wearing a Starfleet uniform,” said the girl who Tilly really, really should not still have been talking to. “But you’re not acting like any Starfleet officer I’ve ever heard of in my entire life.”

“It’s just a Halloween costume,” Tilly lied. 

“It’s February.”

“Well, you know me! Always in the spirit--”

“Yes, I do know you. Because you’re me.”

_Well, shit._ “Shhh!” she whispered. “I’m definitely not supposed to be here.”

The girl--Sylvia--was staring at the badge on Tilly’s chest. “And that’s… that’s real.”

“Yep,” Tilly said, resigning herself to the situation as it was.

“You got into Starfleet.”

“I mean, yeah.” Tilly remembered thinking she wouldn’t get in, that she’d never be good enough to be admitted to the Academy, let alone the command training program. The more time she spent in Starfleet, though, the less she felt she remembered why.

“Command track and everything,” Sylvia said, sounding disbelieving. “Holy--whoa.”

“Yep,” said Tilly. A thought occurred to her. “This is just one possible timeline, you know that, right? You can’t, like, slack off and assume everything’s gonna work out because you’ve already seen me, that’s not how that works at all, in fact, you should probably just try to forget all of this.” She glanced around nervously, as if at any moment her surroundings would dissolve and she’d find herself sans uniform and stuck on Earth. Maybe still living with her mother. She grimaced at the thought.

“Don’t worry,” said Sylvia. “I’m not planning on it.”

“Good.” Tilly realized it wouldn’t be like Sylvia to get lazy, anyway. After all, she’d always wanted to be in Starfleet because she loved science, and space, and exploring and discovering and learning everything she could. And it wasn't like this meeting was going to drop the information right into her younger self's head. She'd _want_ to find it.

“So what are you doing here, anyway?” asked Sylvia.

“Well, that was actually kind of an accident,” said Tilly. “There was a planet, and a weird glowy alien thing, and… yeah.”

Sylvia nodded. “Yeah, that’d happen to me, wouldn’t it.”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“So are you, like, stuck here now? Do you know anything about the weird alien thing? Because I know a whole bunch about starship propulsion systems and stuff but time travel isn’t really my area.”

“I’m not really sure.” Tilly hadn’t really had time to think much about how she was going to get back to the Discovery, as she’d been more focused on figuring out what to tell her past self, but she was starting to get worried. The artifact hadn’t looked like any kind of technology she was familiar with, and she had absolutely no idea how to even begin going about reversing its effects. “But I did go down to the planet with some other people. They’re probably still where I found it. They’re probably analyzing it, trying to figure out what happened--” _At least, I hope they are. They could have been sent back to all their own childhoods too. Or I could have been wiped out of their memories like I never existed. Or a million other things could have happened for all I know._ “Michael Burnham was there. She’s my roommate, you’ve never really had a roommate except that one time when you went to camp for like a day when you were seven and then got homesick and left, but it’s really cool, you should try it, she’s super smart and amazing and I’m learning a whole lot from her about how to be a better officer. And Joann Owosekun, we all call her Owo, and she’s really good in tricky situations but also like really nice? And Keyla Detmer, she wasn’t actually with us but she’s basically the coolest person ever--” Tilly knew she was rambling again, had gotten completely away from the subject of how she was going to get back, but she didn’t care. She needed to distract herself somehow. “--and she has the craziest dance moves at parties too. And I have this other friend named Airiam who has this freakin’ amazing cyborg brain, literally, and she’s super sweet too and she always remembers all the little stuff you say you like because, you know, cyborg brain, and it almost makes me feel bad that I--”

“Wait, you’re friends with all of those people?” Tilly nodded. Sylvia was still looking skeptical. “That… doesn’t sound real.”

“It is real! I swear!" _I'm not sure how--no, I know exactly how offended I should be by that._ "And I haven’t even gotten to the part where I’m pen pals with the queen of Xahea yet--”

“The what of _where_?” Sylvia asked, but Tilly’s attention was drawn elsewhere.

She saw a girl, about the same age as her younger self, sneaking up behind Sylvia. She recognized her immediately--just a few weeks ago she might not have, but that would have been before that same girl had appeared to her as that fungus ghost hallucination… thingy.

“Guess who!” May Ahearn said, putting her hands over Sylvia’s eyes.

“Eep!” Sylvia squeaked. “May, I know that’s you.”

“Hey, Sylvia!” said May. “Did you want to come over to work on the project for--” She noticed Tilly standing there. “Who’s this?”

“That’s my cousin,” Sylvia said before Tilly could come up with anything. “From Florida.”

“Florida? Why _Flor--”_ Sylvia shot her a look. “I mean, Florida, yeah, totally, such a nice place there,” Tilly said.

“Is she coming over too?” asked May.

Sylvia looked over at Tilly and raised her eyebrows. “Nope,” Tilly said. “I’m just in the area to do some… Starfleet stuff.”

“You straightened your hair,” May said to Sylvia. “I didn’t think you were actually going to do it.”

“Yeah! You like it?”

“It looks nice.” May fidgeted slightly. “I think I liked it better the old way, though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. It was… different, you know?”

“Different,” Sylvia repeated. “That it was.”

“In a good way!” May said quickly. “A really good way. Your cousin’s is too! What do you think, Sylvia’s cousin? Should she go back to the old way?”

“Um, I think she should do whatever she wants to do,” said Tilly. _Who even knows if something as random as my hairstyle could change the entire course of history. Probably not because that sounds really silly but I shouldn’t even be here!_

“That’s not a real answer,” said May, but Tilly noticed an odd look on Sylvia’s face. Tilly looked down and realized that there was an odd glow around her hands. The same kind of glow she’d seen around the artifact right before she’d found herself in the past.

Tilly whipped her hands behind her back, hoping May hadn’t noticed. “I mean, it’s the only answer that matters, isn’t it?” she said. “It’s her hair, I mean--” _And also mine, but that’s not the point._ “She can figure out what to do with her own--”

_“Tilly!”_

_That was Michael’s voice._ For a moment, her surroundings faded away. She was back in the cave, the only light coming from the artifact, and Michael’s hand was reaching towards--

Then she was back at her old school. May was definitely giving her a funny look now.

“Maybe you guys should go get started on that project,” Tilly said.

“You know, we probably should,” Sylvia said. “If my cousin has work she needs to do. Which she does?” She looked at Tilly uncertainly.

“Yeah, I’m good.” _There’s nothing wrong with you,_ Tilly wanted to say. _You can have friends. You_ do _have at least one, right now. Don’t take her for granted. Hold onto her._ But she didn’t want to embarrass herself. Her past self, that was. _I of all people should know that’s the last thing I--she needs._

So she just said, “Have fun.”

“It’s a project for Mr. Hutchinson,” May said. “Those aren’t usually fun.”

“But after we’re done with that, we can go to the holo-theater or something?” Sylvia said. “I mean, we’re not gonna have time today, but maybe over the weekend? Unless you’re doing something else or something--”

“No, that sounds nice,” May said. “I think _Undercover Kid 2_ is still running.”

“I heard that one’s super funny! Did you ever do that other one with the cats and--”

_“--increase the resonance of the--”_

_Owo’s voice that time._ Things were getting fuzzy and weird and Tilly really hoped nobody was standing behind her and staring at her hands, that would be pretty awkward to explain, and she wasn’t sure she’d even be able to explain, and this was all just on the assumption that this was what was supposed to happen with this artifact and not anything else.

“Let’s go, Sylvia,” May was saying.

“You know,” Tilly’s younger self said, “I’ve always kinda hated that name.” She wrinkled her nose.

“I--I’m sorry,” May said. “I--”

“It’s fine. You didn’t know. I didn’t really tell people.”

“So what should I call you, then?” May asked. 

“Just Tilly's good,” she said. “Tilly has a nice ring to it, I think.”

And they were gone. She was back in the cave. Really back this time. Probably. She hoped so, anyway.

“Tilly!” Michael and Owosekun were both coming towards her. 

“We've got you,” Michael said. “What even _was_ that? Are you all right?”

“I… I think I’m okay,” Tilly said. “Just kinda tired. That time travel thing… it was pretty weird.”

“Time travel?” Michael said.

“That would be in line with what my scans picked up,” said Owosekun, nodding.

“I think I was back in junior high,” said Tilly. “And I met myself.”

“...Well, I’d say that would qualify as pretty weird,” Owosekun said.

“No kidding,” Tilly said. “But she’s gonna be fine. I really think she’s gonna be fine.”

Michael and Owosekun looked at each other. “No,” said Michael. “She’s gonna be amazing.”


End file.
